May 18, 2004 Bush and Democrats Reach Deal on Judge Approvals *By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS* *Filed at 6:57 p 
         May 18, 2004
    Bush and Democrats Reach Deal on Judge Approvals
*By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS*
*Filed at 6:57 p.m. ET*
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Tuesday freed dozens of President
Bush's judicial nominees from confirmation limbo after reaching an
agreement that will prevent the White House from bypassing objections to
its most contentious choices.
Under the deal, Democrats will allow votes on 25 noncontroversial
appointments to the district and appeals courts that they've been
holding up for months. In exchange, Bush agreed not to invoke his
constitutional power to make recess appointments while Congress is away,
as he has done twice in recent months with judicial nominees.
The deal lasts until a second Bush presidency begins or a new president
takes office, officials said. The agreement was struck days before the
Senate began its Memorial Day recess, in a meeting among top Senate
Democrats and Republicans as well as Andrew Card, the White House chief
of staff.
``The president believes it is important to fill judicial vacancies in a
timely manner, and this agreement is an important step in meeting that
objective,'' White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said.
Both sides win, senators say. Bush gets 25 more judges placed on the
U.S. District and Appeals courts in an election year, despite the fact
that the Senate normally confirms fewer judges in a presidential
election year than any other time.
Senate Democrats, in exchange, won't be forced to sit by and watch Bush
give one- and two-year terms to judicial nominees they've spent four
years and considerable resources to block.
Bush already trumped them by placing two Republicans on the U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals: Charles Pickering, a former chairman of the
Mississippi Republican party and father of GOP Rep. Chip Pickering, and
William Pryor, the former attorney general of Alabama.
Democrats were furious, and they've been holding up all judicial
nominees since March to get this promise.
The White House made the right move, said Senate Minority leader Tom
Daschle, D-S.D. ``I think they feel that it's more important to make
progress than to hold out some possibility of another recess
appointment, and they made the right decision,'' he told reporters.
While not pleased, Republican senators agreed it made sense.
``As a practical matter the likelihood of a recess appointment between
now and Nov. 2 is very small, so I suggest to you that he's not really
giving up a lot in exchange for an up-or-down vote on 25 judges,'' said
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. ``It's, on balance, not a bad deal.''
The Senate immediately confirmed one of the nominees -- Marcia Cooke,
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's former chief inspector general -- to be a
federal trial judge in Florida on a 96-0 vote.
After the 25th judge is confirmed, the Senate will have put 198 of
Bush's nominees on the federal trial and appeals courts, senators said.
Democrats have used the threat of a filibuster to block Senate
confirmation of six U.S. Appeals Court nominees: Pickering, Pryor, Texas
judge Priscilla Owen, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and California
judges Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown.
Estrada has withdrawn his nomination, and two others, Idaho lawyer
William Myers and Defense Department lawyer William Haynes, have not
received votes in the Senate.
Several others are stuck at committee level.
It takes 60 senators to force a confirmation vote in the Senate, which
is split with 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one Democratic-leaning
independent, Jim Jeffords of Vermont.
Owen, Kuhl, Brown and other judicial nominees Democrats found
objectionable are not part of the impending deal, Daschle said. White
House nominees for positions outside the federal courts also are not
part of the deal.
Democrats first threatened to hold up Bush's nominees in March, one
month after Bush gave Pryor an almost two-year stint on the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The president in January gave
Pickering a one-year term on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
New Orleans.
Democrats called Bush's appointments ``a flagrant abuse of presidential
power'' but Republicans said Bush wouldn't have had to use recess
appointments if Democrats hadn't been blocking his nominees.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press <http://www.ap.org/> | Home
<http://www.nytimes.com/> | Privacy Policy
<http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/privacy.html> | Search
<http://query.nytimes.com/search/advanced/> | Corrections
<http://www.nytimes.com/corrections.html> | Help
<http://www.nytimes.com/membercenter/sitehelp.html> | Back to Top <#top>